What is a Washington DC Registered Agent?

A Washington DC registered agent is a third-party appointed by a business to accept on its behalf legal notices issued by a court and official notifications sent by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. A registered agent in the District of Columbia may be either an individual residing in DC or a business entity registered in the District. A Washington DC registered agent must maintain a physical street address, called a registered office, and keep regular business hours. A registered agent is a point of contact between the business and the State for issues of compliance and good standing.

District of Columbia Registered Agent Service

Why you need a registered agent in Washington DC:

The DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs requires all registered businesses to appoint a Washington DC registered agent.

Your DC business registration filing will be rejected by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs if you do not appoint a registered agent.

Essentially, the District of Columbia registered agent requirement exists so the government and general public have a dependable method in place to contact your business.

Why your life will be better if you hire us:

It’s not personal, but you’ll likely struggle with your business filing. Why? Because the entire process of filing a business registration in the District of Columbia is complicated. But we do them every day and when you hire us, as part of our Washington D.C. registered agent service, we’ll instantly provide you with filing instructions, tips, order sheets, and the forms you need to file.

Call us! We’re here to help you through the process of starting your new business in DC. Call or email us when you have a question about your business. The people who answer the phones and respond to emails aren’t robots, and they’re not reading from scripts—they’re just here to help with your specific problems.

Starting your business is just the beginning. After forming an LLC or corporation in Washington D.C., you’ll need to file your first biennial report by April 1st of the following year. After that, you’ll have ongoing requirements, like the Washington D.C. biennial report, which is due to the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs by April 1 every other year. When you purchase our registered agent service, we also include complete Washington D.C. corporate services. You’ll always see upcoming report dates for every state where we’re your registered agent. Your reminders will always be based on your business’ real corporate data, the same data the DCRA uses. And if laws that affect your business change, you’ll know about it. We have the most sophisticated alert system in the business. We do the work for you and provide you with not just reminders but also the forms you need to file prepopulated with your business’ information on them—all at no additional charge.

Free tools. We don’t just send you an invoice for registered agent service once a year—we offer all the corporate legal forms you need to maintain your LLC, nonprofit, corporation, charity, LLP, or any other type of Washington DC business. Through our Corporate Service Manager, you need only enter your information once and use that data to populate all kinds of corporate forms like annual meeting minutes, amendments, and new registrations in additional states.

What makes Northwest different from other registered agent websites?

Big data. If you’ve heard of the phrase “big data,” you’re right to be afraid of it. But you needn’t worry about that with Northwest. We don’t store your credit card information. We don’t sell your data to others to make money.

We are the only national registered agent that locally scans everything to you in real time. Your Washington DC registered agent service is going to be your point of contact for serious legal notices. We maintain our own registered offices in each state, and when you hire us for Washington DC registered agent service, we’ll scan everything from our office in the District of Columbia. And we don’t just email you a copy of your notice. Our Corporate Service Manager utilizes the most sophisticated calendaring response and tracking system of any Washington DC registered agent service to help make sure you, and whoever you want to be notified, don’t just get a notice but that you’re actually looking at the documents.

Privacy. Choosing a registered agent service should be a careful decision. When the general public or a government official wants to know who owns your company, your registered agent is who they’ll contact. We have stringent privacy policies to keep your data private and trained staff who will not give away your information. We also employ several in-house data security professionals who stress-test our own systems regularly. Your information is safe with us!

Collections. New clients sign up with us every day because they’re sick of their current registered agent’s billing policies. We don’t send our clients to collections. If you don’t want to our service, don’t pay us. We’ve never sent a client to collections and never will. Our trademarked slogan is “We’re just not annoying.” This isn’t just a saying; they’re words we live by.

We obviously think highly of ourselves, but this is all we do. Registered agent service isn’t a line item on a profit and loss sheet. It’s not a dividend payment to our owners. It’s not an idea we hope will work out. This isn’t just a job to us, it’s our passion.

What do Washington DC registered agents do?

Receive documents on behalf of your business in the District of Columbia and get them to you.

DC registered agents need to have a physical address (no P.O. boxes) in Washington DC where they can accept legal documents (service of process) and official mail. This location if called a registered office. Our office is in DC.

How do I perform Washington DC registered agent search?

In the results, you’ll find the registered agent’s name and registered office street address.

If you want to legally notify a business through their Washington DC registered agent service, send a letter through certified mail and address it to the registered agent name and registered office address.

How do I change my Washington DC registered agent?

File a Statement of Change of Registered Agent form with the Washington D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

If you place an order with us, the change of agent form will be available instantly.

Where is Northwest’s registered office in Washington D.C.?

We accept and scan all of our Washington D.C. clients’ documents from our office here in DC.

When you accept service of process, how will you send my documents?

Within minutes of accepting a document for your business, we scan it at our DC office into your online account in real time. We created a registered agent infographic to illustrate how it all works.

Can I have my business’ mail delivered to your Washington D.C. office?

That’s not what we do, but we do want to help you if possible.

If you don’t lease a space at our address, the US Postal Service might not deliver your mail here.

As your registered agent in the District of Columbia, things come directly to us, Northwest Registered Agent Service Inc., care of you.

If we do receive any mail for you, though, we’ll scan it to you in real time.

Can I use the address of your Washington DC registered office for everything on my business filing?

Absolutely! We’re the only national registered agent service that allows our clients to list our address for everything when you’re doing a filing to keep your private address private and off public record.

Will you let me know when my Washington D.C. biennial report is due?

Absolutely! If you own an LLC or corporation in Washington D.C., you’ll need to file your Washington D.C. biennial report every other year (April 1). As part of our registered agent service, we’ll not only send you a reminder, but we’ll give you the form you need to file and show you how to file it.

How do Washington D.C. registered agents get served?

This is how it works:

A process server, county sheriff, or third party will walk into our office and hand us the documents (service of process), then we sign for them.

The process server then gives an affidavit (a receipt of service) to the court as confirmation that they “served” us.

Note: Regardless of whether or not you receive the documents your Washington D.C. registered agent signs for on your business’ behalf, once they accept the documents, you’ve been legally notified. This is a serious responsibility that we do not take lightly. Serving a registered agent is legal proof that you were notified. If you hire Northwest, long before the server submits their affidavit to the court, you will have received your documents because we scan them into your account within minute of signing for the documents.

How do I get registered agent service in Washington D.C.?

Sign up online at the top right corner of this page.

We’ll become your Washington D.C. registered agent service after you make your business registration filing with the Washington D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

We collect the first year of the registered agent service fee up front.

About a year later, we’ll send you an invoice for another year of Washington D.C. registered agent service. If you want to keep using us, great; if you don’t, you can easily cancel.

We make it easy to add registered agent services in other states.

We make your account a real go-to resource for you, not just for Washington D.C. registered agent service or paying a bill, but for keeping up with Washington D.C. corporate paperwork formalities like the biennial report.

Should I hire a registered agent before or after I start my business in Washington D.C.?

Sign up for registered agent service first. The Washington D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs will reject your business registration filing if you don’t have a registered agent. You can find all the forms and instructions you need to complete your filing instantly after you hire us.